Greg Ryan, left, talked with Hope Solo, the goalkeeper he benched, at a friendly match against Mexico on Oct. 13. (Kyle Ericson/Associated Press)

”I’m not going to point to any one factor or one individual decision,” Gulati said. ”Obviously, coaches’ decisions impact games. All that was weighed in.”

If Gulati were to point to one factor, one individual decision, it’s hard to believe he would not be pointing directly at Ryan’s goalie switch in China before the Women’s World Cup semifinal against Brazil… and the fallout.

The U.S. women will begin a campaign in February to qualify for the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing and they’ll need a new leader. Jere Longman writes that there are a handful of candidates:

Pia Sundhage of Sweden, who coached Boston in the Women’s United Soccer Association

Tony DiCicco, who coached the United States to the 1999 Women’s World Cup title

Jillian Ellis, the U.C.L.A. women’s coach and coach of the United States women’s under-20 team

Ryan made one of the most bone-headed coaching decisions in the history of international competition. Can the team flak that played such an intrinsic role in Hope’s commentary please be shown the door as well? There should be nice position for him in sales somewhere.

I think the women on this team as well need a lesson in the value of telling the truth in the face of whatever comes. The damage was done when Hope commented. When they voted to ostracize her they showed amazing short-sitedness, and an insipid demand that Hope keep her comments in.

Hope was true to what she is: a goal tender, last line of defense, ready to go it alone… it takes a certain mentality to be in that position. Outspokeness, having strong opinions are EMBEDDED in the goal tender’s personalit. And though she was rash and overly critical with her comments, the lesson learned is that sometimes, sometimes, the truth wins out and the idiots in charge get their comeuppance.

She would have stopped all those goals? Brazil and USA would have ended 0-0 had she been in goal? I don’t see how you can call that the truth. Just her opinion, and one I don’t agree with. Brazil thumped us but good. She vented her frustration, but it wasn’t necessarily the truth.

That said, Ryan’s decision to play Scurry over Solo was ridiculous and contributed to the loss. (And, where I agree with David B. is the statement that the damage was done when Hope spoke. Her remarks did NOT contribute to the loss.)

U.S. Soccer needed to remove Ryan. That, anyway, was the right decision.

Greg Ryan is out FINALLY. It is downright lucky for the USSF that his contract expires at the end of 2007 making it that much easier to dismiss him.

First order of business is to get a great coach for the team — hopefully the search committee will recommend excellent candidates and get the chosen one on board ASAP. Second order of business is to heal the rift within the team — bring in the sports psychologist to weed out the juvenile behavior (Lilly/Wambach) that decided to ostracize a teammate. [The sports psychologist SHOULD have traveled to China with the team, but that request was denied. I bet that decision has been second guessed. This “problem” could have been dealt with before the Norway game.] Third order of business is to win back the fans that watched Greg Ryan rip apart a team that needed more leadership than he could provide.

Hope may have worded her response incorrectly and out of anger, but her intent was on the right track. How are you going to sub out your number 1 goalkeeper for someone who has not played a game in 4 months? and against the most potent attacking team in the tournament?

Ryan you are fired. Here’s hoping that the next coach will break that so-called “close-knit” group and select good technical players for the next team.

Compare Sylvia Neid’s performance in China to that of Greg Ryan’s. That’s why he lost his job. (Both Germany and the US came up against Brazil, which team took the field with a plan to win? Hint: it wasn’t the US.) Yes, Ryan’s teams beat many, many vastly inferior teams, but that’s not how success is measured at the highest level.

Well, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. The switch of goalie was the tip of the iceberg. And while Hope may not have been prescient enough to know she would have stopped all the Brazilian shots, the fact that she was speaking at all was a symptom of a leaderless team under a great deal of pressure.

We all know the catalog of Ryan’s follies. But what was the very most distasteful was the “team leaders” Lord of the Flies behavior. Shame on them. Whether it was instigated by Ryan or not, it displays a sad lack of maturity and integrity on the parts of the so-called “team leaders”.

So now, we can get back to building a stronger and stronger women’s national team! Bring it on.

It’s not just the wins / loss /draws you have to look at it’s how and who the 45-1-9 came from. Most of the wins came vs. non world cup teams, some came from world cup teams playing without their best players. The Gold Cup was a win off of a PK. Just looking at the record will not tell the whole story.

His contract will not be re-newed because of his decisions on the field and the change in style of play (and on the biggest stage in soccer to boot). You don’t sub in defenders when you need goals, for example!

There was a lot less creativity and a lot more, ‘just bang it up front and try to pound it in’ and that style will not win vs. the best teams in the world when they are playing at full strength.

I’m glad the US Soccer Federation saw that . . . There is talk of Pia Sunberg . . . now that would be something to see, a good change!

Coach Ryan’s leaving sets the stage for the arrival of a coach who will bring better technically skilled players onto the team, better substitution management, and replace the long ball to Wambach with working the ball forward via crisp passing. While Coach Ryan built an enviable record of wins versus losses, the majority were against weaker teams when other countries, with a very few exceptions, placed little investment in women’s football (soccer). As foreign teams improve we frankly need a better coach.

Coach Ryan’s decision to replace Solo with Scurry was indicative of his poor coaching, but not his worst decision. The decision to allow the shunning of Solo, even if it was led by team leaders Wambach and Lilly (to their great discredit), was even worse. It established rule by fear when there were other remedies for the immature outburst by Solo. In addition, it has served to alienate many fans who do not agree with this sledgehammer style of punishment.

Ryan getting canned shouldn’t be about Hope. She, IMHO, was out of line.

He should be fired because he turned the US team into a boring, long-ball, one-dimensional crap team that didn’t deserve it’s no. 1 ranking. Brazil leads by example on the men’s side for how to earn a no. 1; play beautiful soccer, or don’t bother coming.

We’re better than he made us. Here’s hoping we can show some actual class next tourney.

And, BTW, if you read Jen Chang and others, 55 and 1 is a stretch–he lost the Algavre Cup as well. But again, the biggest reason is he stole the team’s ability to play good soccer.

Two of Brazil’s goals came on mistakes by Scurry. The other two – who knows? But a two zip game is not completely out of reach – four zip is. Solo was telling her version of the truth, and it is a lot closer to anybody’s objective reality than Ryan’s.

But unless Solo is given a chance to get her job back the lesson will be “kill the messenger” regardless.

I do not see what Ryan did wrong. He has been an overwhelmingly sucessful coach for several years. He made a bad roster selection. So what. The uproar created by the disgruntled Solo is to be expected from someone who has been benched. And reporter Longman’s supposition that dissent on the men’s team would have been given more respect is quite irrelevant. Ryan is the women’s team coach; the reaction of Arena or anyone coaching the men’s side to the sullen conduct of their players is not at issue. “Paranoiac feminism” has no place in “the beautiful game.”

Ryan brought this all on himself. Time to move on. Time to break up the cliques that seem to exist in the team. I hope the U.S. has lost its “entitlement” mentality. They have to play, and play as a team, rather than parade themselves as “the best team you’ve never heard of.”

With all of the comments regarding Greg Ryan’s inadequate coaching notwithstanding, one of the most flagrant hypocracies of this incident was that Hope Solo was publicly criticized by the coach for her statements (also made in public), and the disciplne administered (suspended from playing in the Norway match),then with a totaly lack of any leadership, he allowed the complete and very publuc lynching of Hope by her teammates.

After explaining that these type of matters should remain private and kept within the team (this was repeated in several forms by Kristine Lilly and Abby Wambach)the subsequent incredibly inhumane, rude treatment was rendered in a cruel, public display. Having to eat alone, sleep alone, receive her medal alone, flying from China seperate from the team, not being spoken to by team members………..this additional punishment was far beyond the pale of discipline, and, as above, allowed to be done publicly by the coach who wanted things kept private.

Job Search Committee: Take a look at Coach Randy Waldrum of Notre Dame as the next coach for the USWNT. US Soccer President: Now is the time to find a world class coach for the men’s team. Keep up the good work! David Hudson, Dallas, TX

Good. We don’t need coaches who play hunches at the semifinal of the World Cup. Especially if they’re based on results no more recent than 3 years previously. You don’t replace a goalie at a major tournament unless he personally costs the team a game or is injured. This team better win the Olympics next year or they’ll go down the same drain as the WUSA.

Nowadays moral courage is thrown down the gutter, Hope Solo did not exercise personal power of moral power, no but she unleashed her BIG MOUTH.

Unfortunately majority of us like to add fuel to the fire, this is a teachable moment for Hope [even though she is out of high school], it is clear she is a hot head, she may try to imitate Terrell Owens, I would prefer her to follow in the footsteps of Cal Ripken Jr for honoring the game.

As I have said again and again, that is the difference between men’s sports and women’s – you don’t see men’s teams “cat-fighting” over what one player says. And you would never see a men’s team going along with a coach suspending a player for saying what is on his mind. They might not like it (re N Y Giants) but they just get on with it, especially if the player is a valuable one.

The basic problem is that the US players aren’t as good as the players from the other top teams. The recently published list of the top 25 players had four Norwegians, four Germans, five Brazilians, and only two Americans – Wambach and the 36-year-old Lilly. Part of the American advantage in the last several years was based on superior conditioning and a willingness to play very hard (or rough, if you prefer). Once the other countries caught up with that, the American weakness – ball handling – came to the fore. We have a team of big strong players who do not dribble, pass, or shoot as well as their opponents, as evidenced by the smaller, quicker Brazilians smothering them on defense and dancing right around them on attack. The North Koreans showed that without Abby Wambach the US team is not really a top tier team. What has happened to our player development?
Also – Hope Solo’s childish, petulant outburst would have been unacceptable on a middle school team. She displayed a stunning lack of respect for both the coach and a teammate and deserved to be suspended from the team.
Greg Ryan may not have been a great coach, and may have deserved to be fired, but open attacks by a players and by former players after one loss would give any potential coach second thoughts. A coach has to be willing to make hard decisions, and Ryan did that, whether the players and the public agreed with them or not. Some of the former players that attacked him were players that he elected to leave off the national team; private agendas came out. Let’s hope the new coach won’t be intimidated and think that he or she has to have the players’ approval to act.

While Mr. Ryan may have let cliques run amok on this squad, I have to agree that Ms. Solo’s petulant behavior did require some discipline. Professional athletes must always believe that they are the best at their craft and deserve to play. But those thoughts are best kept as internal motivation. While Ms. Solo’s comments about Mr. Ryan’s decision to play Ms. Scurry may have been accurate, that is no excuse to disrespect another professional and a teamate in the process.

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Goal, The New York Times soccer blog, will report on news and features from the world of soccer and around the Web. Times editors and reporters will follow international tournaments and provide analysis of games. There will be interviews with players, coaches and notable soccer fans, as well as a weekly blog column by Red Bulls forward Jozy Altidore. Readers can discuss Major League Soccer, foreign leagues and other issues with fellow soccer fans.